Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Who was Shakespeare?
Position‹3 of 5›: William Shakespeare was a woman
Argument‹3 of 5›: Shakespeare had a hidden code

Shakespeare's use of feminine endings reveals a female author trying to include subtle hints at her gender.

The argument

This was deliberately done to ensure that ensuing generations cracked the cypher and identified Shakespeare as the female writer she was. The increased frequency of the feminine ending was the author's way of trying to get the message across to the unsuspecting public without actually putting the fact in black and white.

Context

Shakespeare employs feminine endings (a verse’s ending with an unstressed, hypermetric syllable) to provide rhythm and flow to his prose. These endings are gradually employed with more frequency in his writing. In his early work, they feature in under 10% of his written prose. Then they increase to around 20%. After 1600, they jump to over 25% of his writing, peaking at 35.4% of verses in the Tempest.

Premises

[P1]On this view, the increased frequency of feminine line-endings in the plays was a deliberate hidden code. [P2] The author used it to signal to future generations that Shakespeare was a woman without stating the fact outright. [C] Therefore, because Shakespeare planted such a hidden code, William Shakespeare was a woman.

Counter-arguments

This 'hidden code' is not a code at all but a writing style. The fact that Shakespeare frequently employs feminine endings to his verse is no more evidence of him being a woman than Herman Melville's frequent use of the word 'whale' in his prose is evidence that he is actually a whale.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] This is not evidence of anything.